We are on Dave Ramsey's baby step 6. We are trying to get to step 7 in order to "give like no one else."

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Our journey

I have been awake since 4:34 am. Why? There is a gazelle in my house. It's me. If you are not a Dave Ramsey person you are going to have no idea what I am talking about. If you don't know who Dave Ramsey is drop everything right now and go get his book Total Money Makeover. It will change your life! With that being said, it might possibly cause you to start a blog at 4:34 am and the second sentence is about gazelles.Here's the gist of why I am starting this blog. We have been doing Dave Ramsey's TMM for a few years now. We are on Baby Step 6. We want to be on Baby Step 7. You can find information on the steps here:http://www.daveramsey.com/new/baby-steps/Lets start from the beginning. My Husband and I have been married for 9.5 years. He's my favorite person in the world to hang out with. We have a beautiful baby boy. We live in a nice cozy home that was built in the 50's. We live 1 mile from the cutest little downtown you have ever seen. A few years ago my husbands boss gave us the Dave Ramsey audiobook Financial Peace. It sat in a drawer for a few months and one random morning I turned it on. Bam! It completely made sense to me. I told my husband all about it and he was immediately on board. We sat down and did our first budget. Created our debt snowball. We owed $53,269 in student loans and 2 cars. We went beans and rice crazy and paid it off as quickly as we possibly could. We called in and did our debt free scream and it was so much fun! Hallelujah, we were free from consumer debt and it felt great! Step 2 was complete.We saved every penny after that and fattened up our emergency fund. Baby step 3 was in the books.401ks and IRA's were next on the list. We hooked up with an ELP and got the ball rolling on Step 4.At the time we didn't have any children so we skipped step 5. Aww. BS6. Duh duh duh. The big daddy. We've been on this step for a while. Life has happened. We've cash flowed having a baby, took a couple of vacations, had career changes, moved out of our home state, and for the most part gone down to one income. This is where we are now baby step 6.

$167,169.30 This is the magic number. This is what lies between BS6 and BS7. That's a pretty big step. That seems ginormous to me. This blog will be a record of our journey over that hump. I listen to DR's podcast every day while I'm strolling our little guy around the block. Desperate for some new trick or tip for baby step 6. Everyone is always calling in about step 2. I get it! We've been there. Anytime Dave mentions BS7 he acts all nonchalant about it like its no big deal. Hello! You've trained us to be gazelle intense and obsessed with being debt free, pinching every penny going to extreme lengths to get rid of this debt and then all of a sudden we are supposed to turn that intensity off and be like , "oh it's just $167,169.30 no big deal just get to it when you can. " I can't turn it off. My husband can't turn it off. The gazelle is here to stay. We want to be on BS7. Plain and simple.Last night my husband and I were dreaming together about BS7 and what that would look like. We want to buy a food truck and feed the homeless. How fun would that be?! We have several things we would like to do. What would your BS7 look like?